Taking roll in college is a joke.

When our current President George W. Bush traded away Sammy Sosa many years ago as the owner of the Texas Rangers, the idea didn?t seem bad at the time. A professor, sitting in his office, figuring out how he is going to make his points add up to 100 percent, is stricken by the idea of filling the holes in the syllabus with an attendance requirement.

Without a second thought, they crack some knee-slapping joke on the first day of class about the limited amount of subject matter their empty desks can take in. The class gives a polite chuckle and moves on. The politeness should cease.

This is not grade school. Everyone here is choosing to be here, and is paying a lot of money to attend school. Some days we can?t make it to class. Demands on a college student?s time are much more complicated than high school student?s, and we are responsible for what we miss on certain days. Stuff comes up, and in college every reason should be taken as valid. We are adults paying for our own education.

If a test day is missed, it is up to professors to allow, or not allow, a make up test and that is fair. If the student is not there for whatever reason, that is there responsibility. But professors should not dock points for being absent. Missed classes already put students in a hole, but that is a choice that they make. Whether it is to go to a baseball game, sleep, study for another class, meditate, or play UNO, that is a choice that college students are allowed to make, or at least they should be.

I understand that professors don?t want to teach in front of an empty room, so some decide that 10 percent of a grade will be based on attendance. All of the sudden, the action of simply showing up to class is worth more than a five page paper, or a test, or the combined homework for the course. That is ridiculous.

Not all professors take attendance, and a lot of them still manage to fill their classrooms with bodies without treating their pupils as if they are still in high school. How do they do it? In a variety of ways.

One of my current professors has decided to give small quizzes, which cannot be made up, at the beginning of most classes. These types of quizzes are usually fairly simple, and it is good motivation for showing up to class. It serves the same purpose as an attendance policy (by giving present students a bonus for showing up), while at the same time respecting all of the students in the class.

But the best solution is to realize that, for the most part, most students are going to show up anyway, without being forced to. It is rare that adults pay a lot of money for something, and then ignore its benefits at every opportunity.

Russ Edmondson is a journalism major and served as sports editor of The State Hornet in the fall 2000 and Spring 2001 semesters. He can be reached at [email protected].